Don’t be an idiot. Don’t be a jerk. But, don’t be afraid to make a fool of yourself.
I spend a lot of my days trying to figure out what clicks. You can read that last sentence in any number of ways. When it comes to looking at Social Media (and Blogs, in particular) it’s always fascinating to see what gets the most attention. Here’s my unsubstantiated opinion from a market of one (me): it’s the very personal stuff and it’s the stuff that pushes the standard thinking to the edge.
When you make yourself vulnerable, people not only see a more human side of you, but they wind up seeing themselves in your content too.
It’s not easy to do. When you give opinions, many people see it as grandstanding or as someone trying to create a set of rules. When you disagree with a commonly held ideal, you may be treated like a Charlatan. It doesn’t have to be that dramatic. We may all attempt to be professional by day and casual by night, but by taking a look at the Twitter stream – during any particular time of the day – you’ll quickly see how dramatically those lines are blurring. Learning how to be comfortable with making a fool of yourself could well become one of the better character traits you can pick up on.
Six ways to open up and make a fool of yourself:
- Write in stream of consciousness. Too many writers, Blogger and people who tweet spend too much time trying to think of the perfect words to weave together so that others will think that they are smart. Instead, just start writing. Let the words flow out of you… naturally.
- Let it feel weird. Some of the best Blog posts (in terms of comments, tweets and attention) that I’ve ever published were the ones that I felt very uncomfortable with the second I hit the "publish" button (like this one does). The ones where you are unsure of how the content will be received. Those are the ones that feel too vulnerable. Those are the ones with the gold.
- Have thick skin. You’re putting raw emotion and new thinking out into the world. It’s going to attract attention. It’s not all going to be bellyrubs and lollipops. Get used to it.
- Have thin skin. I have very, very thin skin (I even Blogged about it here: You Have To Have Thin Skin). I want people to think my ideas are great and if they do not, it bothers me. I harp on their every word and I play evil games in my mind about snarky ways to defend my own honor (and then I do nothing by taking a personal and moral higher ground stance). When people are overly nice to me and complimentary, my skin is thin too. I don’t know how to accept it graciously. I have reconciled that this is the true artist in me.
- Faith. Not in a religious way, but you have to have faith that how you are thinking and feeling has a place in this world. And – more importantly – you have to have faith in the ways in which you express it (be it words, images, audio or video).
- Scrabble. Don’t try to find words that will help you win a game of Scrabble. Don’t use big words (unless it’s a part of who you are and how you really speak). Speak in a human voice. Use emotional words. Words that mean something. Words that help you to connect the dots.
Just today…
I posted this thought to Twitter: "I am ok with putting opinions out there. I am ok with being wrong about them. I am just trying to think creatively. You?" It was less of a question and more of a personal statement about who I am and what I am trying to do (but it was nice to see how others felt).
Now, it’s your turn: what do you do to make a fool of yourself and to open up?
Mitch Joel Mitch Joel lives at the intersection of technology, business transformation and consumer culture. He is the Executive Director of Next Era Institute, a strategic intelligence platform helping leaders understand the forces reshaping business, technology, culture and society. The Institute identifies which shifts matter, explores their wider significance and translates them into strategic direction and momentum. Mitch is also a globally recognized keynote speaker. He has delivered thousands of presentations across both B2B and B2C industries to organizations including Google, Walmart, LEGO, Shopify, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble and Unilever. Strategy Magazine has called him “one of North America’s leading visionaries.” Mitch built his career by working directly inside the waves of change that reshaped modern business. He founded and built a digital marketing agency that worked with some of the world’s largest brands and was later acquired by WPP, where he served as President of a firm operating in 25 countries with almost 3,000 employees. Mitch is the bestselling author of Six Pixels of Separation and CTRL ALT Delete, and the host of Thinking With Mitch Joel, one of the longest-running business podcasts in the world. His writing and commentary appear in outlets including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company and Inc. Magazine. He is a member of Dr. Marshall Goldsmith’s 100 Coaches and was named to the Thinkers50 Radar. Mitch also hosts Groove – The No Treble Podcast, documenting the oral history of electric bass players. Mitch is also Co-Founder of ThinkersOne, a platform that enables companies to bring personalized thought leadership from world-class experts into meetings, events and off-sites in focused 15-minute bursts.